Magic is everywhere

'That is the greatest magic.' That's what little Colin calls the growing of plants in the book 'The Secret Garden'.

In fact, the popular book by British author Frances Hodgson Burnett is almost entirely about this kind of magic – it runs through the story like an elf's trail of fairy dust. But the symbolic tale is also about neglected children and adults who have lost their connection to life. The book, which has been made into several films, is a children's classic, and rightly so.

In this book, life regains space, even though it has been suppressed by many things that can happen to a person – but growth prevails, just like the little green shoots outside in the garden – in all the gardens of the world. Children are actually fascinated when you let them sow something and watch it grow into a plant. It doesn't matter if it's a rose or a tomato plant – it's definitely alive, and children have a special sense of that. Very young people have a special way of looking at things before they become more bent and practical.

Sometimes children take some of this with them into the adult world, and the magic is not lost. The school experiments with seed bags are over, and mother's herbs on the windowsill are no longer the focus of attention – for many, the little miracle of growth sinks back into a storeroom of memory. Others learn something important – even if it sometimes bears strange fruit.

A friend of mine used to let her cress plants run wild until they were no longer edible. 'In a way, I feel sorry for them', she once said with a smile. A gardener I knew hated destroying the 'weeds' with a gas flame. 'I feel like an executioner', he said. Maybe it was because the shoots twisted under the heat. It didn't look very nice.

Some people welcome every new rosebud in their garden, rejoicing in the increase of flowers – and mercilessly weeding out everything else. But isn't it the same miracle when a bright green tip pierces the earth to the light? A more or less tiny seed has become something living, a magical act has taken place. But if you want to have useful plants, you have to make sure they have room to grow – and that includes ornamental flowers and vines. So there is no way around weeding them out. But you don't have to enjoy it – as some people probably do.

There was the neighbour who, with a grim look on her face, removed everything that threatened her favourite flowers – constantly complaining about the war in the flowerbed and only satisfied when she saw order restored, completely forgetting to enjoy the growth and bloom. When she stood by her flowers, hands on hips, she looked like a general after a victorious battle. Not like someone who knows how magic works.

Burnett's book is also about choosing plants – but, like the whole story, it is a parable. The garden is equated with the soul in this story. A little girl who has a vague idea of growing, but has yet to learn what it means. A man who has banished everything that strives for the light from his life and wants to let the garden of his soul die. A boy who, because of his father's refusal, is also cut off from this life-sustaining magic. Then there is a young magician who willingly accepts the mystery of life around him and deciphers it. They all do something great by learning to see the small things and thereby grow and protect their inner selves.

The film adaptations are quite entertaining – but the magic only really works when you read the book. Written for children, the language is clear and not very complicated – but that is exactly what brings light into the reader's 'secret garden' in a straightforward way.

My book tip: (Advertisement) 'The Secret Garden' by Frances Hodgson Burnett is available in paperback, hardback, e-book and audiobook.

© 'Magic is everywhere': The review of 'The Secret Garden': A review by Winfried Brumma (Pressenet), 2013. The cover shows 'The Secret Garden' by Frances Hodgson Burnett (Publisher: F.A. Stokes, 1911), CC0 (Public Domain Licence).